Office Policies

Our Practice is Primary Care – the care of adults starting at age 14. We perform diagnosis of acute illness and care of chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes). We provide preventative and wellness care. Care includes physical and school exams, annual GYN/pap smears and dermatologic surgery. We are able to do many procedures in office: lab draws, EKG, spirometry, hearing testing, bone density (DEXA). We care for chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, post cancer care, osteoporosis, and thyroid and cholesterol disorders.

Office Hours

Lab Hours

E-Mails

We use Webview for free:

Appointment request

Refill request

Nurse Direction

Online access to labs and test results

Online care plans

Appointments

To schedule an appointment you can call the office or e-mail through Webview. A nurse will assist you in scheduling an appointment that is appropriate for you needs. Please tell the nurse all the issues you wish to discuss so we can schedule an appointment with adequate time to cover your issues. We do not do a physical on the first visit. That first visit is to review your history, acute problem and address future health care needs.

Patients that need an acute/urgent appointment can usually be seen the same day by Dr. Burkett, Dr. Pirozzi, a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant.

Phone calls to the office

We try to answer every call live. If you reach a voice mail box, the nurse is on a call assisting another patient. Please leave a message including your name, DOB, your reason for calling and a number where you can be reached. If you do not leave a message we will not know that you have called. A nurse will return your call as soon as possible. (Usually within 30 – 60 minutes)

Some problems are not medically appropriate to manage over the phone and we will make you an appointment. The nurse may need to consult with the provider before scheduling an appointment. We strive to make you a convenient appointment in a timely manner. Dr. Burkett will help coordinate your care with specialists when needed.

We encourage you to call or e-mail us if you have questions about your health, your care, medications or results. A nurse will either answer your questions or communicate with you after she checks with the doctor.

Please call if you will be more than 15 minutes late for your appointment. We may need to reschedule your appointment if you are late. Effective January of 2017, we will be charging a fee for no- shows. Patients will be charged $50 for an acute appointment and $75 for a physical appointment. We pay a service to remind our patients with upcoming appointments 2 days in advance. You receive a phone call with the date and time as a reminder. If the appointment is made within 2 days of the appointment, there will not be a call. If you cannot make your appointment, please call the office to cancel at least 2 hours prior, so that we may fill the slot with another patient. If you have 2 no-shows or multiple cancellations, you may be asked to leave the practice.

Insurance rules about physicals are changing. While some patients are healthy and have a true well exam, other patients are quite complex and have multiple medical issues. If you are a patient with multiple medical issues we will have you schedule your well exam and a separate appointment to review your chronic medical issues. If you are ill or there is a major medical issue on the date of your physical that we must address then, we will reschedule the well exam to another date. Health plans are becoming quite specific about this and will not cover the treatment and evaluation of such diseases such diseases as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease and others when addressed at a well exam. We have already changed this with our Medicare patients.

Results

Normal lab tests will be available online through Webview. Abnormal results will be called directly to you by Dr. Burkett or staff.

After hours and weekend call

For a life threatening emergency call 911

If you have a medical illness after office hours, call 720-266-6900. You can leave a message for the following day or if you need to speak with the on-call doctor, the answering service will page the doctor on call.

When the doctor returns your call please:

Unlock your phone * 82

Have the patient name, nature of the problem, and a pharmacy phone number ready.

Know which hospital you can get to in an urgent/emergent situation.

Do not call about persons that are not our patients or about children under 16.

If possible the doctor should talk directly to the patient who is ill.

The on-call doctor will Not order narcotics at night or weekends.

The medications which can be called out of state (if you are traveling) are limited by state law.

Do not leave the answering machine on.

Labs

We have a lab in our office where we draw blood and test urine samples. We are experienced with sending labs to the correct lab for your insurance, but must have accurate and up-to-date insurance information at the time labs are drawn.

We do not do labs for other physicians/specialist.
We cannot accommodate frozen specimens and will send you to a draw station if the test requires a frozen sample.

If you request lab/additional tests not ordered by the doctor, we will try to accommodate you, but be aware that these tests are often not covered by insurance and you will be billed by the lab for the cost.

Contact Information

At each appointment we will update your contact information. If you have any changes (Insurance, address, phone number) please let us know. This affects how your insurance is billed.

Online Communication

At any time you can start online communication through Webview. The basic service allows you to see labs and results, request appointments or medication refills and contact us for office questions.

Referrals and Authorizations

Many insurance companies require referrals and prior authorization of expensive procedures. Please know your insurance requirements. Authorization for high cost tests (CT, MRI, Stress tests, ETC.) is almost universal. Unless it is a life threatening emergency, it usually takes 3-5 days to get this authorization from your health plan. Our Staff will direct you to lower cost outpatient facilities.